Sunday, November 21, 2010

random bits

Will the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend be a good choice for Crafternoon Sunday? Anyone planning on being in town rather than heading away, and thinking that a small crafty snacky talky gathering sounds like fun??

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Finally found a calendar that will make me happy to look at it for next year. Designs originally done as papercuts, by the Japanese artist Ryo Takagi. A few years ago a few of these showed up at New Seasons, and with very little waffling one came home and was a happy visual stimuli all that year. I'd not seen one again for a while, and was delighted to see this one at Powells; it will be the new for 2011 write things down wall calendar here. I sure have a weakness for beautifully done cut paper design*, just like for the block printing it so resembles.

Just might make another alphasketch calendar this year, for the second half of the alphabet... Skipped last year for lack of enthusiasm on my part. Drawing is fun, and there never seems to be time to just sit and do it...December 5 will be housiversary number 5. Hard to believe that it is almost five years since moving here to Acorn Cottage. Each year I try to find the house a gift, and for year five wood is the traditional gift material. Must think on what would be needful and beautiful, as well as suited to my pocketbook...

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Everything outside Sunday AM was frozen solid. Chooks don't mind, they all cram into the nestbox at night so they are sleeping warm with their feathery selves as a blanket. When it gets much colder there are two smaller waterers that get swapped out twice a day so they always have liquid water to drink.

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Started a corduroy jumper in the rest of the brown leftover from the one I made for A. My original plan was for black edge binding and trim, but that ended up not looking right somehow, when combined with the tops and dresses that were already in my closet. After many different other fabrics were auditioned, the winner was a surprising one, a printed babycord, black background with tiny acorns and flowers in dark green, dark brown, and dark periwinkle blue. Somehow the variegated-ness of the print works better as an edge bridge for the extra-wide wale corduroy than another solid color.

Probably the meta concept at work here for me is one of gentle transitions rather than high contrast. (thinking out loud) That is one of my personal sewing themes; I am uncomfortable with wearing fabric prints or clothing combinations that are high contrast in value*, and much prefer a more subtle, wabi-sabi combination. Perhaps as my coloring has changed over the years, so has my color preferences. Even the vivid cobalt and purples that I wore only a decade or two ago now feel too bright. Hopefully, my clothing is full of has enough whimsical and subtle detailing which provides enough visual interest to keep boredom at bay.

The important thing is that it pleases me, getting dressed in the morning is no longer something to dread. While in my pinafores and partlet I do look quite different from the crowds in jeans and jackets, here in Portland there are enough folks about that dress creatively that my clothing is not seen as incomprehensibly past the end of the bell curve too weird, but rather as one end of a spectrum, and occasionally gets me pleased comments from passers-by. (I think it is my hats. Why do so few people wear interesting hats?...) Of course, I also compliment folks seen while riding the bus, or when out and about, who have chosen interesting or thoughtfully planned clothing to wear. Why not? Letting someone know, even someone you don't know, that they look well that day is a tiny spark of kindness. It certainly brightens my day when that happens.

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...and now, if you will excuse me, there is a slow cooker full of well-cooked quince that needs bottled...

* value here refers to the visual light/bright as opposed to dark/muted continuum rather than to the cost and/or quality aspect of things!

You would certainly be welcome, I'd not be announcing it in this public way if I didn't want folks to come over!

Crafternoon was formerly called a Craft-Tea-Party, until that became a word to describe something else. Basically it is just an afternoon of social time, potluck tea and snacks, and bring along handwork is often in evidence, though not a requirement. Sometimes there is a trip in the evening to Sushi Ichiban afterwards. (Occasionally folks bring something that needs another person to help with, like pinning up a hem) It is not a specifically SCA activity, but most similar to a project night.